The Obama administration in early 2009 called for bringing down the deficit to about $530 billion in four years.

The latest official budget review projected the deficit would hit $1.3 trillion this year and fall to $956 billion in fiscal 2012, which ends next September. Obama's first term wouldn't be up until January 2013, but the review still forecast a $648 billion deficit for the entirety of 2013.

Obama gonna fix it...News analysis: Tax plan not class warfare, Obama insists19 Sept.`11 WASHINGTON &#8211; In unveiling his deficit-reduction plan Monday, President Obama spelled out stark ideological distinctions between himself and Republicans on the path to repairing a gloomy American economy.

With an eye toward next year's presidential election, Obama challenged the core principles of Republicans, who accused him of committing class warfare for backing tax increases on the wealthy as part of the answer to reducing the nation's $14.3 trillion debt. "I reject the idea that asking a hedge fund manager to pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare," Obama said. "I think it's just the right thing to do." Voters are evenly divided (45%-45%) between Obama and Republicans in Congress on who they trust more to take steps to create a strong U.S. economy in the long run, according to the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. Voters were surveyed from Thursday to Sunday.

Surrogates for Obama cheered the president's plan to raise $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue from wealthy Americans as one way to help cut the nation's deficit. The tax hike on wealthy individuals and corporations &#8212; the so-called Buffett Rule named after billionaire Warren Buffett&#8212; would include letting Bush-era income tax cuts expire for individuals making more than $1 million and by closing corporate tax loopholes. "The Buffett Rule has the potential to be a game changer in the tax debate," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "It will make the Republican position almost indefensible. The president has a winning hand."

Jerry Austin, a Democratic strategist in the battleground state of Ohio, said Obama's proposal was as important for its style as it was for its substance. "For the last three years, he's been a negotiator and a conciliator," Austin said. "In this speech, he made clear that (Republicans) caused these problems and this is how he's going to fix them." With Republicans in control of the House, the proposal appears to have little chance of going anywhere, but it allows the president to contrast his vision against Republicans as each side presents its plan for pulling the country out of a deep economic malaise. Obama had championed letting Bush-era tax cuts expire for families earning more than $250,000 last year, but he eventually agreed to extend the tax cuts through 2012 as part of a budget deal brokered in December.

Obama: 'This Is Not Class Warfare;' It's Fairness for 'Millionaires and Billionaires' September 19, 2011 - President Barack Obama said in a Rose Garden speech on Monday that he was not engaging in "class warfare" by demanding increases in taxes on people he referred to three times as "millionaires and billionaires."

"During this past decade, profligate spending in Washington, tax cuts for multi-millionaires and billionaires, the cost of two wars, and the recession turned a record surplus into a yawning deficit, and that left us with a big pile of IOUs," Obama said at the beginning of his speech. "And any reform should follow another simple principle: Middle-class families shouldn&#8217;t pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires," Obama said a moment later. "It&#8217;s hard to argue against that. Warren Buffett&#8217;s secretary shouldn&#8217;t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. There is no justification for it."

"Nobody wants to punish success in America," Obama said. "What&#8217;s great about this country is our belief that anyone can make it and everybody should be able to try--the idea that any one of us can open a business or have an idea and make us millionaires or billionaires. This is the land of opportunity. That&#8217;s great. All I&#8217;m saying is that those who have done well, including me, should pay our fair share in taxes to contribute to the nation that made our success possible."

"This is not class warfare. It&#8217;s math," Obama said. "The money is going to have to come from someplace." Obama sent his plan to increase taxes to the joint committee of 12 House and Senate members crafting a deficit reduction plan. Obama&#8217;s proposal is meant to reduce the deficit, while also paying for his $447 billion jobs proposal. Obama said for every $2 in spending cuts, there will be $1 in revenue. The plan reduces the deficit by $4.4 trillion, according to the White House. That includes $1.5 trillion in revenue from tax reform and $1.1 trillion in savings from drawing down troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Granny says dem politicians gonna turn dis country into one big poorhouse...Deficit deal failure would pose crummy choice19 Nov.`11 WASHINGTON (AP) &#8211; If the deficit-cutting supercommittee fails, Congress will face a crummy choice. Lawmakers can allow payroll tax cuts and jobless aid for millions to expire or they extend them and increase the nation's $15 trillion debt by at least $160 billion.

President Barack Obama and Democrats on the deficit panel want to use the committee's product to carry their jobs agenda. That includes cutting in half the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax and extending jobless benefits for people who have been unemployed for more than six months. Also caught up in what promises to be a chaotic legislative dash for the exits next month is the need to pass legislation to prevent an almost 30 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. Several popular business tax breaks and relief from the alternative minimum tax also expire at year's end. A debt plan from the supercommittee, it was hoped, would have served as a sturdy, filibuster-proof vehicle to tow all of these expiring provisions into law. But if the panel fails, as appears likely with Wednesday's deadline nearing, a dysfunctional Congress will have to sort it all out.

There's no guarantee it all can get done, especially given impact on those measures on the spiraling debt. Instead of cutting the deficit with a tough, bipartisan budget deal, Congress could pivot to spending enormous sums on expiring big-ticket policies. If lawmakers rebel against the cost, as is possible, they would bear responsibility for allowing policies such as the payroll tax cut, enacted a year ago to help prop up the economy, to lapse. Last year's extensions of jobless benefits and first-ever cut in the payroll tax were accomplished with borrowed money. The 2 percent payroll tax cut expiring in December gave 121 million families a tax cut averaging $934 last year at a total cost of about $120 billion, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Obama wants to cut the payroll tax by another percentage point for workers at a total cost of $179 billion and reduce the employer share of the tax in half as well for most companies, which carries a $69 billion price tag. "The notion of imposing a new payroll tax on people after Jan. 1 in the midst of this recession on working families is totally counterproductive," said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. Letting extended jobless assistance expire would mean that more than 6 million people would lose benefits averaging $296 a week next year, with 1.8 million cut off within a month. Economist say those jobless benefits &#8212; up to 99 weeks of them in high unemployment states &#8212; are among the most effective way to stimulate the economy because unemployed people generally spend the money right away. "We will have to address those issues," Durbin said.

Fear of Spending Cuts: Automatic Cuts Seen by Some as Threat to U.S. EconomyNovember 18, 2011 WASHINGTON (AP) &#8212; Just as the U.S. economy is making progress despite Europe's turmoil, here come two new threats.

Deep spending cuts are set to kick in if a congressional panel can't agree by Thanksgiving on how to shrink the budget deficit. And Congress may let emergency unemployment aid and a Social Security tax cut expire at year's end. Either outcome could slow growth and spook markets. Analysts are concerned. Yet most aren't panicking. Many say the economy and markets can withstand the blows. That's because Congress or the Federal Reserve could take other steps next year to blunt the automatic cuts and lift the economy. And investors expect so little from the congressional panel that they're unlikely to overreact if no deal is reached. "There's no doomsday scenario in reducing government spending," said David Kelly of JP Morgan Funds.

The 12-member bipartisan panel, or supercommittee, was created in August to defuse a political standoff over raising the federal borrowing limit. It's supposed to find at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts by Nov. 23. If it fails, federal spending would automatically be cut by that amount over nine years, starting in 2013. The law triggers cuts in programs prized by both parties: social services such as Medicare for Democrats, defense spending for Republicans. The panel appears to be deadlocked. Economists say a stalemate makes it harder for Congress to extend the Social Security tax cut and unemployment benefits. On the other hand, if the supercommittee does forge a deal, it might include an extension of those benefits. Or it could at least clear the way for an extension later.

The Social Security tax cut gave most Americans an extra $1,000 to $2,000 this year. Unemployment benefits provide about $300 a week. Most of that money quickly and directly boosts consumer spending, which drives the economy. By contrast, an expiration of those benefits could cut growth by about three-quarters of a percentage point, economists say. Throw in other cuts, like those passed in the August debt deal, and all told, federal budget policies could subtract 1.7 percentage points from growth in 2012, according to JPMorgan Chase and Moody's Analytics. Given the tepid economy, such a hit could be damaging.

We been broke for over 3 years...Treasury Reports 38th Straight Month of DeficitsDecember 12, 2011  The Treasury Department has released spending and income data showing that the federal government has now run a deficit for the 38th consecutive month.

According to its monthly Treasury Report, the federal government ran a $137 billion deficit in November, the 38th straight month it has done so. Since the beginning of its fiscal year  Oct. 1, 2011  the government has run up a $236 billion deficit. In total, Treasury estimates that the government will run a $1 trillion deficit this fiscal year  from October 2011 to Sept. 30, 2012.

Gretchen Hamel, executive director of Public Notice  a conservative activist group  said that reports of multi-billion deficits had become all too common in Washington, D.C. Sadly, in the nations capital, this report has become routine. The American people, however, should be outraged by this latest evidence of Washingtons total lack of accountability and regard for hard-earned taxpayer dollars, Hamel said in a press release.

As the year winds down, Americans will look back and try to see what worked and what didnt, and resolve to do better in the New Year. Lets hope Congress recognizes that 2011 has been a fiscal disaster and that it must do better in 2012.

The Obama administration in early 2009 called for bringing down the deficit to about $530 billion in four years.

The latest official budget review projected the deficit would hit $1.3 trillion this year and fall to $956 billion in fiscal 2012, which ends next September. Obama's first term wouldn't be up until January 2013, but the review still forecast a $648 billion deficit for the entirety of 2013.

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